People v. Kuhn

• Decision Date: 01 October 1925
• Docket Number: No. 82.,82.
• Citation: 232 Mich. 310,205 N.W. 188
• Parties: PEOPLE v. KUHN.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

232 Mich. 310

205 N.W. 188

PEOPLE

v.KUHN.

No. 82.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Oct. 1, 1925.

Error to Circuit Court, Hillsdale County; Guy M. Chester, Judge.

Marjorie Kuhn was convicted of murder, and she brings error. Reversed, and new trial granted.

Argued before McDONALD, C. J., and CLARK, BIRD, SHARPE, MOORE, STEERE, FELLOWS, and WIEST, JJ. Victor Hawkins, of Jonesville, and Merton Fitzpatrick, of Hillsdale, for appellant.

Andrew B. Dougherty, Atty. Gen., and J. Culver Riggs, Pros. Atty., and Paul W. Chase, Asst. Pros. Atty., both of Hillsdale, for the People.

WIEST, J.

Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, under a charge of having administered strychnine poison to Zelon Lake at the village of Jonesville, Hillsdale county, on the 26th day of December, 1922, and she prosecutes review by writ of error. Defendant is in middle life; passed at times as the wife of Zelon Lake, although they were not married; and, at the time of the alleged killing, was on a holiday trip with him at the home of her niece in the village of Jonesville. It is the theory of the prosecution that defendant administered the strychnine poison in a dish of oatmeal or a cup of coffee she carried to the deceased in a bedroom shortly after the noon meal. Mr. Lake did not partake of the noon meal, but, shortly thereafter, complained of not feeling well, and retired to a bedroom. His death occurred about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So far as the evidence discloses, the relations between defendant and Mr. Lake were agreeable, and they were making Christmastime visits to his mother in Marshall and to her relatives.

It is claimed no motive was shown. Although sometimes confused, motive and intent are not synonymous terms. A motive is an inducement for doing some act; it gives birth to a purpose. The resolve to commit an act constitutes the intent. The motive inducing the resolve, while illuminative of the intent, is necessarily merged therein, and is not an essential element in proving commission of crime. The essential element of intent is not at all dependent upon motive. If the intent appears, the motive inducing the design may be shown, but, if not shown, the design remains, and, as the intent governs, the inducement creating the intent is not essential. A motive is a relevant but not an essential fact in proof of murder. It is true it exists whether disclosed or not. If disclosed, it may aid the prosecution, but, if not disclosed, or only faintly discernible, its absence or hidden character does not abort the charge, if the intent is established. The evidence of motive was meager, but what there was of it went to the jury, and properly so, on the question of intent.

It is said the law requires a record to be kept of all purchases of strychnine, and the prosecution failed to show any purchase by defendant. True, but, while this might have been, and probably was, urged to the jury, it presents no question of law. Proof of purchase by defendant might have strengthened the prosecution, but the absence of such proof does not nullify the conviction. The prosecution called all eyewitnesses of the deathbed scene, and they gave testimony that Mr. Lake's death was peaceful and without convulsions. The jury evidently found that strychnine was given in oatmeal or coffee at least two hours before death, caused death, and, notwithstanding the testimony of all eyewitnesses, death was preceded by convulsions. A fatal dose of strychnine, if it does not cause immediate death, produces severe convulsions ending in death. If the poison found in the organs of the body was given about two hours before death, the doctors agree there must of necessity have been convulsions. This uncontroverted medical evidence was directly opposed to the testimony of the eyewitnesses, and presented an issue of fact for the jury. The medical evidence was also to the effect that the accepted minimum fatal dose of strychnine is about one-half grain, and may be slightly less. It is quick in action, goes to all parts of the body, because it is taken up from the stomach and intestines, and carried through the blood stream everywhere the blood circulates, and a fatal dose causes death from almost immediately to three hours, though it may be extended to six or seven hours, and if an analysis of a well-sampled one-half of the stomach of a dead body, one-half of the liver, and one-half of the...